Our invention is of utility in any installation of wheel and shaft where bearings must be accurately adjusted to prevent brinelling and where sensor mounting means is required. One important use of our invention is in the automotive industry, where the wheel bearings, particularly the wheels, must be accurately adjusted so that the weight transfer or load through the bearing elements or rollers is distributed among substantially all the rollers and not merely one, two or three elements only. When the bearings are too loose there will be a brinelling action which causes indentations which result in failure of the bearing.
Also it has been found that many accidents occur because of the brakes of vehicles, such as trucks and trailers, locking and causing jacknifing, as well as throwing the vehicle out of control. In order to prevent such a disaster the United States Department of Transportation has established regulations requiring drive sensors or anti-skid devices to eliminate the braking defects.
It is old in the art as shown in the patent to Polizzi U.S. Pat. No. 2,365,433, to provide lock nuts using mating teeth, serrations, splines, and in which a cotter hole and cotter pin are employed as the final fastening device. Also it is old to provide a serrated structure as shown in the patent to Anderson, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,455. Also, it is old to provide a nut having a lock ring with mating serrations, the lock ring being pushed in a recess in the nut and held in place by a spring clip.
No place in the art is there a structure which permits the use of accurate adjusting means for the nut and at the same time support on the nut for a sensing means, the sensing means being accurately positioned both concentrically and axially.